Questioning white supremacy in schools: A mother’s experience
By Angela Wills
Highly dissatisfied is only one of the feelings to describe how Jackie Stewart felt as she visited the principal’s office of her daughter’s school for the fourth time since school started. She was not at all pleased with the way the school year had started.
Stewart said, “I don’t know what’s going on this year. Let me change that, I know what is going on this year. It’s that teacher. She’s the only one Mariah is having a problem with and the one behind all of these suspensions.”
Mariah, who just entered high school, has always loved history. However, this year, she’s found it challenging to accept the method of approach that her teacher uses to teach Black history events.
To date, Mariah has three suspensions since the start of this school year that are all de-scribed as “disobedient and disruptive behavior.” However, when asked about the specifics of the suspension, her mom explains that “she challenged her teacher on the tenets of white supremacy.”
Stewart is a history professor at a local college. She has made it a point to teach Mariah about the past in context. Stewart sees the bigger issues of educating minority children on issues of race, which is associated with how the experiences are presented to them negatively.
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